Apparatus and method for moving contents having a restricted number of copies between storage media

ABSTRACT

A method of managing content, the method being performed by a device including an analyzing unit and a control unit. The method includes judging, via the analyzing unit, whether the content can be moved to an external entity based on moving control information, the moving control information being different from copy control information indicating whether the copy of the content is permitted, determining whether an authentication with the external entity is needed in order to move the content to the external entity, if the judging step judges that the content can be moved, and controlling, via the control unit, a moving operation of the content to the external entity such that the content can be moved to the external entity without the authentication if the determining step determines the authentication is not needed.

This application is a Continuation of application Ser. No. 10/022,889,filed on Dec. 20, 2001 now U.S. Pat. No. 6,965,975, the entire contentsof which are hereby incorporated by reference and for which priority isclaimed under 35 U.S.C. §120.

BACKGROUND OF THE INVENTION

1. Field of the Invention

The present invention relates to an apparatus and method for movingcontents, particularly, to an apparatus and method for moving contentscapable of moving contents having a restricted number of copies toanother storage media.

2. Description of the Background Art

Recently, due to a rapid; growth of computer and communicationtechnologies, information and communication have become more importantin everyday life as well as in science and business. Particularly, inthe current information age, since every country in the world isconstructing high-speed communications networks, various informationwill be provided, transmitted and consumed and a considerable part ofsuch information will be secured by copyright laws.

Recorders, video recorders and copy machines using the analog methodmake differences in quality between the original and the copy in costs,time and convenience, and accordingly, those things do not significantlyaffect the copyright.

However, work on information and communication media such as theInternet significantly affect copyright laws since the copy and theoriginal are 100% identical and through the Internet images and voicesas well as texts can be transmitted to the entire world. Also, in thebroadcasting field, the TV transmitting method is digitized bygeneralization of the digital compression technology and the developmentof inexpensive receivers, and accordingly, copying contents throughbroadcasting significantly affects copyright laws.

In the information age where all works such as images and records aredigitized, infringement of copyright laws has become easy and is done invarious forms, and accordingly, exposing and getting rid of infringementof copyright laws is difficult.

Therefore, since writing is decreased and distribution of intellectualproperty rights is hindered unless the infringement of intellectualproperties is prevented or the technologies for exposing theinfringement is prevented, enterprises related to copyrights are makingsignificant efforts to develop copy protecting technology as atechnological means to secure works.

In the present, as a general technology for protecting a copy, there isa method of restricting the number of copies to a certain number byinserting a copy control code in a header part of contents. The abovetechnology will be applied to broadcasting contents as the digitalbroadcasting is popularized, and the technology is partly now in use.

FIG. 1 is a schematic block diagram showing a copy apparatus of aconventional digital broadcast receiver.

As shown in FIG. 1, the conventional digital broadcast receiver includesa TV broadcast receiver 100 for receiving contents which a broadcastingstation transmits, and a recording apparatus 200 for storing thereceived contents.

The above TV broadcast receiver 100 includes a receiving unit 110 forreceiving the contents, and a first storage medium 120 for storing thecontents supplied from the receiving unit 110. Further, the recordingapparatus 200 includes a second storage medium 210 for storing thecontents transmitted from the first storage medium 120.

The operation of a copying apparatus for the conventional digitalbroadcasting receiver will be described with reference to accompanieddrawings as follows.

The receiving unit 110 of a TV broadcasting receiver receives contentstransmitted through transmission media such as a broadcast satellite orcable and stores the contents in the built-in first storage medium 120.At this time, the possible number of copies of the contents is decreasedby one.

With the above storage method, the contents can be stored by the storagecommand of a user or new contents can be continuously stored byautomatically deleting old contents at a certain time interval accordingto the composition of the TV broadcast receiver 100.

Later, when the user wants to copy the contents to the second storagemedium, the TV broadcast receiver 100 reads the contents from the firststorage medium and judges the possible number of copies by analyzing thecopy control code inserted in the header part of the contents.

FIG. 3 is a view showing a packet including a header in accordance witha conventional data packet. A “DATA LENGTH” field specifies the lengthof the data field of a data block payload packets and data blockpackets; a “TAG” field provides a high-level label for the format ofdata carried by the packet; a “CHANNEL” field specifies the channelnumber for the packet; a “TCODE” field represents a transaction code,which specifies the packet format and the type of transaction to beperformed; and an “SY” field represents a synchronization code, and isan application-specific control field.

At this time, as shown in FIG. 3, the copy control code uses 2 bitsamong 4 bits of synchronous bits in the header part of the data packetand is divided to an unrestricted copy, a restricted copy, a single copyand no copy according to the set values (00,01,10,11). Also, the other 1bit is used in an encryption code of the data stream and the leastsignificant bit of the synchronous bits is a reserved bit and is notused.

Namely, as shown in FIG. 2, if the copy control code is set as anunrestricted copy (S201), the TV broadcast receiver 100 does not convertthe copy control code and copies the contents to the second storagemedium (S202 and S203). If the copy control code is set as restrictedcopy (S204), the receiver 100 stores the contents in the second storagemedium 210 after decreasing by one from the possible number of copiesand by converting the copy control code (S205 and S206). On thecontrary, if the copy control code is set as no copy, the TV broadcastreceiver 100 cannot copy the contents to the second storage mediumregardless of the demand of the user (S207).

By the way, the first storage medium 120 is restricted in capacity.Therefore, if the copy control code is set to no copy in case the userof the digital broadcast receiver is willing to store the contents for along time or edit the contents, a copying or editing of the contentsfrom the first storage medium 120 to the second storage medium 210 isimpossible.

SUMMARY OF THE INVENTION

Therefore, an object of the present invention is to provide an apparatusand method for moving contents capable of moving the position of storedcontents under the condition that the number of contents is notincreased.

Another object of the present invention is to provide an apparatus andmethod for moving contents capable of efficiently moving contents havinga restricted number of copies to another storage media.

To achieve these and other advantages and in accordance with the purposeof the present invention, as embodied and broadly described herein,there is provided an apparatus for moving contents comprising an inputunit for inputting contents and a control unit for controlling themoving of the contents to another medium by analyzing a copy controlcode of the contents.

To achieve the above objects, there is provided a method for movingcontents comprising the steps of analyzing a copy control code of thecontents when a user selects moving of the contents from a first storagemedium to a second storage medium and storing the contents the contentsin the second storage medium by converting the copy control code of thecontents according to the result of analysis.

The foregoing and other objects, features, aspects and advantages of thepresent invention will become more apparent from the following detaileddescription of the present invention when taken in conjunction with theaccompanying drawings.

BRIEF DESCRIPTION OF THE DRAWINGS

The accompanying drawings, which are included to provide a furtherunderstanding of the invention and are incorporated in and constitute apart of this specification, illustrate embodiments of the invention andtogether with the description serve to explain the principles of theinvention.

In the drawings:

FIG. 1 is a schematic block diagram showing a conventional copyapparatus;

FIG. 2 is a flowing chart showing a method for copying contents of FIG.1;

FIG. 3 is a view showing a header of a conventional data packet;

FIG. 4 is a block diagram showing an apparatus for moving contents inaccordance with the present invention;

FIG. 5 is a flowing chart showing a method for moving contents inaccordance with the present invention;

FIG. 6 is a detailed flowing chart showing the step for moving contentsof FIG. 5; and

FIG. 7 is a view showing a header of the packet in accordance with thepresent invention.

DETAILED DESCRIPTION OF THE PREFERRED EMBODIMENTS

Reference will now be made in detail to the preferred embodiments of thepresent invention, examples of which are illustrated in the accompanyingdrawings.

FIG. 4 is a block diagram showing an apparatus for moving contents inaccordance with the present invention.

As shown in FIG. 4, an apparatus for moving contents in accordance withthe present invention includes a TV broadcast receiver 400 for analyzinga copy control code of contents received from a broadcasting station,converting the copy control code according to the result of the analysisand outputting the converted code. Also included is a second storagemedium 500 for storing the contents moved from the TV broadcast receiver400 through an interface means.

The TV broadcast receiver 400 includes a receiving unit 410 forreceiving the contents, a first storage medium 420 for temporarilystoring the contents received from the receiving unit 410, a copycontrol code analyzing unit 430 for analyzing a copy control code of thecontents stored in the first storage medium 320, a control unit 440 forcontrolling the operation of each unit needed to move the contents suchas fetching, deleting and code converting from the first storage medium420, a copy control code converting unit 450 for converting the copycontrol code of the contents according to the control of the controlunit 440 and a data outputting unit 460 for transmitting contentsfetched from the first storage medium having the converted copy controlcode to the second storage medium.

At this time, the second storage medium 500 can be included in the TVbroadcast receiver 400, and can be independent out of the receiver usinga connection means such as a cable or can be included in anotherapparatuses (for example, a VCR for performing recording).

The operation of the apparatus for the moving the contents in accordancewith the present invention will now be described with reference to FIGS.5 and 6.

The receiving unit 410 of the TV broadcast receiver receives thecontents transmitted through the media such as a broadcasting satelliteor a cable and stores the contents in the first storage medium 420. Atthis time, the possible number of copies of the contents is decreased byone.

Later, when the user requests moving the contents, the control unit 440checks whether the TV broadcast receiver and the second storage medium500 are connected (S501 and S502). If they are connected, the controlunit 440 judges whether an authentication is needed between the TVbroadcast receiver 400 and the second storage unit 500 by analyzing thecopy control code of the contents (S503).

Further, if the copy control code of contents is set as an unrestrictedcopy, the contents do not need any authentication. But if the copycontrol code of the contents is set as restricted copy or no copy, thecontents are to be authenticated to maintain the restricted number ofcopies.

Therefore, the control unit 440 performs the step 506 when the copycontrol code is set as an unrestricted copy. However, when the copycontrol code is set as restricted copy or no copy, mutual authenticationis performed between the TV broadcast receiver 400 and the secondstorage medium 500 (S504 and S505). At this time, since the TV broadcastreceiver 400 and the second storage medium 500 are authenticated by eachpeculiar key values, in case a medium rejects the authentication demandor the authentication is not succeeded, moving the contents is notpossible (S508).

When the authentication between the TV broadcast receiver 400 and thesecond storage medium 500 is performed successfully (Yes in S505), thecontrol unit 440 controls the moving the contents stored in the firststorage medium 420 to the second storage medium 500 only when the secondstorage medium 500 can be written to (S506 and S507).

FIG. 6 is a detailed flowing chart showing the step of moving thecontents (S507).

As shown in FIG. 6, in the step of moving (S507), the moving operationis performed according to the possible number of copies determined byanalyzing the copy control code inserted in the header part of thecontents.

Namely, if the copy control code is set as an unrestricted copy(possible number of copy is N, N=∞), the copy control code is notconverted by the copy control code converting unit 450 (S601 and S602).Later, the control unit 440 stores the above contents to the secondstorage medium 500 through the data outputting unit 460 (S603).

Also, if the copy control code is set as a restricted copy (N=n), thecopy control code of the contents stored in the first storage medium 420is decreased by one by the copy control code converting unit 450 (S604and S605). The control unit 440 then stores the contents in the secondstorage medium 500 through the data outputting unit 450 (S606).

Also, if the copy control code is set as no copy (N=0), the copy controlcode of the contents stored in the first storage medium 420 is changedto a single copy by the copy control code converting unit 450 (S607 andS608) in order to move the contents from the first storage medium 420 tothe second storage medium 500. Here, when the copy control code is setto no copy, the copy control code is set as a single copy or no copybefore the contents are stored in the first storage medium 420. At thistime, when the copy control code of the contents is set to no copy, thiscase is not included in the present invention, because the contentscannot be stored in the first storage medium 420. However, when the copycontrol code is set to no copy by being stored in the first storagemedium 420, the present invention is applied to the case. Later, thecontrol unit 440 stores the contents to the second storage medium 500through the data outputting unit 460 and then moving the contents iscompleted by deleting the original written in the first storage medium420 (S609 and S610).

Since the contents are moved as above, the number of the contents issame as that of before the movement.

As another embodiment from the above moving method, the presentinvention sets a moving determination bit in the contents in advance andaccordingly, moving of the contents can be performed according to themoving determination bit.

Namely, as shown in FIG. 7, the present invention sets the leastsignificant bit as a moving determination bit in the synchronous bitsand if the contents can be moved, the moving determination bit is set as“1” and if the contents can not be moved, the moving determination bitis set as “0”.

Therefore, if the user requests moving the contents to the secondstorage medium 500 after the contents are temporarily stored in thefirst storage medium 420 by being received in the receiving unit 410 ofthe TV broadcast receiver 400, the control unit 440 can judge whether ornot the contents can be copied in advance according to the movingdetermination bit after reading the moving determination bit of thecontents.

Namely, unless the moving determination bit is set as capable of beingmoved, the contents can not be moved to the second storage medium 500and accordingly, the contents can be stored with the copy method as inFIG. 2 of the conventional art. However, if the moving determination bitis set as capable of being moved, the contents can be moved in thesecond storage medium 500 as in the process shown in FIGS. 5 and 6.

As another embodiment from the above TV broadcasting receiver 400, thepresent invention can be embodied as a processor (not shown) whichincludes units of the TV broadcasting receiver 400, or as a processor(not shown) which is programmed with the above method of movingcontents.

The method of moving the contents is that the user moves the contents tothe second storage medium 500 by analyzing and converting the copycontrol code of the contents after the contents are stored the firststorage medium 420, as described above. However, the first storagemedium 420 can be included in the Personal Video Recorder, and can beincluded in another apparatuses (for example, Personal Computer, DigitalVideo Disc, Digital Video Home System) using a connection means (forexample, IEEE1394, Universal Serial Bus).

As described above, the apparatus and method for moving the contents canmove the storing position of the contents and not increases the numberof the contents.

As the present invention may be embodied in several forms withoutdeparting from the spirit or essential characteristics thereof, itshould also be understood that the above-described embodiments are notrestricted by any of the details of the foregoing description, unlessotherwise specified, but rather should be construed broadly within itsspirit and scope as defined in the appended claims, and therefore allchanges and modifications that fall within the meets and bounds of theclaims, or equivalence of such meets and bounds are therefore intendedto be embraced by the appended claims.

1. A method of managing content, the method being performed by a deviceincluding an analyzing unit and a control unit, the method comprising:judging, via the analyzing unit, whether the content can be moved to anexternal entity based on moving control information, the moving controlinformation being different from copy control information indicatingwhether or not a copy of the content is permitted; determining, via theanalyzing unit, whether a communication is possible with the externalentity through an interface, if the judging step determines the contentcan be moved, and determining whether an authentication with theexternal entity is needed in order to move the content to the externalentity, if the judging step judges that the content can be moved and theanalyzing unit determines the communication is possible; andcontrolling, via the control unit, a moving operation of the content tothe external entity such that the content is moved to the externalentity without the authentication if the determining step determines theauthentication is not needed.
 2. The method of claim 1, wherein theexternal entity is connected to the device through an IEEE 1394 orUniversal Serial Bus.
 3. The method of claim 1, wherein the controllingstep comprises: checking whether the external entity can store thecontent before moving the content; and controlling the moving operationbased on a result of the checking step.
 4. The method of claim 3,wherein the controlling the moving operation based on the result of thechecking step comprises: controlling the moving operation such that thecontent is not moved to the external entity if the checking stepdetermines the external entity can not store the content, andcontrolling the moving operation such that the content is moved to theexternal entity if the checking step determines the external entity canstore the content.
 5. The method of claim 1, wherein the controllingstep comprises: controlling the moving operation such that the contentis moved to the external entity when the content can be stored in astorage medium of the external entity.
 6. The method of claim 1, whereinthe authentication is performed using a particular key value.
 7. Themethod of claim 1, further comprising: deleting the content stored in astorage medium of the device if the content is moved to the externalentity.
 8. The method of claim 1, wherein the controlling stepcomprises: controlling the moving operation such that the content ismoved to the external entity only when the determining step determinesthe authentication is successful.
 9. The method of claim 1, wherein thecontent comprises at least one packet, and wherein the moving controlinformation is included in a header of the at least one packet.